Improvement in processes of preparing grain for manufacture into flour



j l v/ `of yF. cook. e Processes of Preparing IGrain for Manufacture Into F our No. 145,846, P ate,nt.ed mm2-3,1873'.`

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In Ven[or:

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.,

oR'EN F. oook, oF GRAND ISLAND, CALIFORNIA.

IMPROVEMENTIIN PROCESSES 0F PREPARING GRAIN FOR MANUFACTURE INTO FLOUR.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 145,846, dated December 23, 1873; application filed September 18, 1873.

To all whom t'may concern Be it known that I, OREN F. Coon, of Grand Island, in the county of Oolusa and State of California, have invented a Process of Preparing Grain for Manufacture into Flour, of which the'following is a specification:

The subject of this invention is a process for removing from grain its exterior hull or skin, and any adhering foreign substance, together with a large portion of its germs, and without breaking the kernel, and as a preparation for grinding, and the production of pure iour.

Under the present mode of manufacture, as in the making of wheat flour, the outer husk of the wheat is subjected to theV same process of reduction by grinding as the interior portions, and, as a consequence, is, with a portion of its adhering deleterious substances, incorporated with the flour, discoloring and damaging the same just in proportion to the presence of such substances.

Figure l represents a combination used by me of the several devices therein described, A being the hulling-machine proper; B, an ordinary conveyer; C, a tank to hold water; D, a blower or fan; E, .a polishing-machine; F F, garners to receive the grain; G, an ordinary elevator; h, spouts; I, a grain-separator; K, driving-pulleys.

Fig. 2 represents a longitudinal section of the hulling-machine A, as also an end view,

L` showing adjusting lugs on the segments of the outer cylinder, whereby they are held properly together.

Fig. 3 represents sectional views of perforated metal plates, as used by me in constructing the working cylinders of the hulling-machine in one of its forms.

In constructing the hulling-machine, I use either perforated metal plates-say, of ironor wire-cloth woven from iron or steel wire, as the material forming the working surfaces of the cylinders. If metal plates are used, they are first perforated in squares of, say, threeeighths of an inch, by means of a pointed punch, which tears the metal in being driven through it, raising a burr on the under side, and, as shown in Fig. 3, presenting a surface similar to that of an ordinary nutmeg-grater, the holes being, say, about one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, and the burrs about the same depth as the diameter of the holes. The plates are then formed into two cylinders of any desired diameter and length, one of them in segments, so as to admit of enlargement or diminution of its diameter at pleasure, whereby them of, say, half an inch, the velocity of the revolving cylinder being about five hundred revolutions in a minute. In the iixed or outer cylinder, the burrs formed in punchin g the metal plates are on its concave surface. In the inner one, they are on the convex' surface.

When using wire-cloth as the working faces of the cylinders, I-have a backing of sheetiron or other metal, to prevent the escape of detached bran or husk through the meshes of the cloth. In all other respects, the cylinders are similar to those constructed of metal plates. The office of the roughened surfaces of the cylinders in either form would seem to be to form and hohl the wetted detached bran or husk as an intervening substance between such surfaces and the grain, thus preventing actual contact between them, the hulling process being the result of attrition of the grain itself between the partially-elastic surfaces formed from the bran, and aided by detached bran incorporated with the grain. In the rst operations of the hulling-machine, and before the space between the cylinders becomes filled with grain, many of the kernels are broken, and the hulling is but imperfectly done. So soon, however, as such space becomes filled, the grain is seen to be almost completely denuded of its outer husk, and vermiform pasty matter, composed principally of ne particles of bran and dirt, issues from all the holes in the cylinder-plates, showing that a sort of pad or cushion, composed of the matter rubbed off the y grain, must exist and cover the working faces of the cylinders, and, operating as partially-elastic surfaces, preventing actual contact of the metal with the grain, such substance being formed continuously during the working of the machine, so long as the grain is properly moistened when introduced into it.

With rubbing-surfaces composed of wirecloth backed by a continuous metal surface, as stated, detached particles of bran and other matter removed from the grain are driven through the meshes and impacted against the metal back, and probably enveloping the wire itself to such an extent as to present a surface resembling that of felt, against which the rubbing is done.

The grain, say wheat, is let into the con veyer B, and water is allowed to fall upon it from the tank O 5 or, if desired, it may be subjected to the action of ste'am. Thence the wetted grain is carried by the conveyer directly to the spout 7L, whence it falls into the hullerA, the time between the point at which the water or steam is introduced and the hulling-machine being just such as to allow the outer hull to be softened without perceptibly wetting` the interior portions of the grain. Thus softened by water or steam, the wheat il lls into the space between the cylinders, and, during its descent through the machine, is subjected to a rubbing operation between the surfaces of the cylinders by means of the rotary motion of the inner one.

From the huller, the grain and detached husk fall into the flue of the separator I, where,

by means of a current of air, produced by the fan or blower l), all light matter, together with the surface moisture of the grain, is removed, and the denuded and nearly-dried grain falls into its appropriate garner, as at \F F. Remaining in the garner afew hours, or long enough to admit of absorption of remaining surface moisture, it is put through the polisher E, which detaches particles of husk and other matter, as also the germs of the grain exposed to its action by the removal of the outer husk. Thence it falls again into a current of air, where all free matter lighter than the grain, as also all remaining moisture, is removed, and the grain itself, cleansed of every impurity, is ready to be ground.

` I claim as my invention herein- The process of removing from grain its outer husk or bran, as herein described, to wit, irst subjecting the grain, after the ordinary cleaning, to the action of water or steam, to soften the husk, then passing it between two vertical bran-covered metallic surfaces, one revolving within the other, substantially as set forth.

OBEN F. COOK.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM A. ANDnRsoN, SAMUEL L. RoGERs. 

